Hi, my cat (Siamese) is about 3 years old. About 9 months ago… she started coughing. Tried a few things but… still no luck. The vet. put her on a 1month treatment of Prednisone which worked for a few months. However, a few weeks ago, she started again however, this time, the Prednisone isn’t working. She’s still coughing 3-4 times a day (for about 3-4min.). Any suggestions? (I attached a video :here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GE3Uw6ZlGQ))

(She’s already on hypoallergenic food)
:pawprint:

sugarcatmom

February 12th, 2011, 04:16 PM

About 9 months ago… she started coughing.

From the looks of the video, asthma comes to mind. There's a great website called Fritz the Brave (http://www.fritzthebrave.com/index.html) that has an overview of asthma and the symptoms to look for, including a video of a cat having an asthma attack: http://www.fritzthebrave.com/asthma/symptoms.html#Symptoms

She’s still coughing 3-4 times a day (for about 3-4min.). Any suggestions?

You might want to look into getting an AeroKat inhaler so that you can use Flovent and/or Salbutomol medications. Oral or injected steroids can have some serious side-effects, but the inhaled ones much less so. There's more info on the above website.

(She’s already on hypoallergenic food)

Which one? Dry, wet? The prescription hypoallergenic diets are a bit of a misnomer. They still contain plenty of ingredients not fit for a feline, so perhaps finding a good quality wet food without grains would be more helpful. Some other things to consider are the type of litter that you're using (clay and silica ones being the dustiest and most likely to cause a problem - pellet litters are the least dusty), and also cleaning products. Choose unscented laundry detergents and natural cleaners like vinegar wherever possible. A Hepa air filter might also help. Does anyone smoke in your home? Just like for people, that can be a trigger in cats as well.

catlover2

February 13th, 2011, 12:08 AM

It does sound like asthma, and not just coughing trying to get up a hairball.